One

Thursday, June 21, 2012

I left my air conditioned house and ran to my air
conditioned car. It’s 34 degrees and the humidity makes it feel like 40+. I am
not a happy camper in the heat but the garden centre has a 50% off sale on
bedding plants and baskets. I still need a few flowers to complete my tiny
patio and garden. So, what’s a girl todo? Did I tell you 50% off! I grabbed
my reusable bags for groceries and if I remember them in the car it’ll be a
miracle.

So the plan was... select a few plants for a song and hit the grocery
store where I might stay for the rest of the day as its usually cold enough to
hang meat.

1 hanging basket; 1 clematis to plant under my Corkscrew Hazel
tree that has died, and a large container of Basil. The plants and I were
wilting after twenty minutes in the sun so the garden centre watered them
before I stashed them in the trunk. To cool off I walked the 50 yards to the
mall where I knew I could cool down and have a drink.

Sufficiently refreshed I
started to wander when I noticed signs that said...Sale 50%off. So, what’s a girl to do? One can always
find something at 50% off!

So I wandered some more and tried on a few things but
everything I liked was not on sale.When I had satisfied my retail appetite
I had some lunch in the food court and then made my way home.

My husband helped me unload the car of plants and then
asked....Where are the groceries?

Well, what’s a girl to
do? I mumbled something about.. it would be better to do one thing at a time
in this heat. It’s now after six pm. The groceries have been put away and as I
write this in my office I watch out the window as the trees begin to bend. Yes,
yes, a storm is on the way. Liz has just reported thunder in Guelph so we won’t
be far behind. I’m not cooking dinner in this heat, so, what’s a girl to do?

As I post this the rain is lashing the windows and I feel like taking a walk outside just to feel cool.Perhaps a walk to the fish and chip shop is in order?

Thursday, June 14, 2012

We didn’t get any further than Toronto. It was June 16th,
1966 and 12 days married. We were full of the first throes of marital bliss.
After spending our honeymoon in Burntisland, an 11km train ride from Edinburgh;
we said our goodbyes to friends and family and shipped our worldly belonging to
arrive by ship after the boat strike. Hugely disappointed we would not be
sailing, Peter had to drag me across the tarmac for my first plane ride.

As I recall it was a
Boeing 707 with a Rolls Royce engine. Not that I paid much attention as I cried
for the first two hours but perked up when the ‘stewardess’ offered me a Manhattan. Not knowing what it was but
liking the exotic name, I managed to quaff a couple before I fell asleep much
to the relief of my new husband. We arrived in Montreal tired and excited to
brilliant sunshine. Before long we were on the train travelling west to Toronto
and our new life as husband and wife.

Culture shock hit us like a blast of heat. Just like the
temperature at Union Station. It was in the mid twenties and humid. We felt it
even more as we were both wearing wool suits! One did not Google the temp. or traffic
problems in the dark ages. My cousin
and his wife, suitably dressed for the weather, were there to meet us in a large white ’57 Chevy with red terry
cloth covering the seats. No air.

We oohed and aahed over this and marvelled at the overpasses
and the wide lanes of traffic. It was all so different. We made our way through
the city and arrived at the Golden Mile and soon arrived at my cousin’s
apartment in Scarborough. They had been in Canada for ten years so we chuckled
at them when they mixed Canadian slang with a Scottish accent. We stayed with
them and their children for a few weeks until we managed to rent our own place.

June 1966 : Lynden Johnson was president of the USA and Lester
B Pearson was prime Minister of Canada. So many changes but how prophetic is this song
written and recorded by the Beatles the week I arrived in Canada. Here are some of the lyrics. It’s just
taken me forty six years to get here!!

Paper back writer (paperback
writer)Dear Sir or Madam,
will you read my book?It took me years to
write, will you take a look?It's based on a
novel by a man named LearAnd I need a job,
so I want to be a paperback writer,Paperback writer.

It's a thousand pages, give
or take a few,I'll be writing
more in a week or two.I can make it
longer if you like the style,I can change it
round and I want to be a paperback writer,Paperback writer.

If you really like
it you can have the rights,It could make a
million for you overnight.If you must return
it, you can send it hereBut I need a break
and I want to be a paperback writer,Paperback writer.

``````````````````````````````````````````````````

Liz and I met yesterday and found it to
be rather frustrating. A few changes have to be made but it has put us out of
sinc with how we normally work. However we’ll persevere and will have the
manuscript ready in a few weeks to be sent out to publishers.

Don't forget that the book launch of the year
happens tonight in Toronto. VickiDelanyandCB Forrestare
launching their latest books, Gold Mountain and The Devil's Dust at Dominion on
Queen, 500 Queen St, East, Toronto. As an added treat their editor, Allister
Thompson will be providing some fabulous music. Hope to see you all there.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Hard to believe just a week ago Pam and I were at Bloody
Words. I’ve been enjoying all the Facebook chatter this week from attendees –
all in all it seems as if everyone had a terrific time.

We’ve managed one
quick get together since then and are getting ready to have another look at the
opening of Body Perfect, as well as watching for some other pointers throughout
the story to continue the polishing and perfecting progress.

Pam has read a couple of well-written and timely blogs this
past week. She forwarded them to me and I agreed that they needed a mention. The links for these blogs
will go up, but the specific posts are what caught our interest:

Of Bodies and Beginnings by Barbara Fradkin is very apropos
for Jamie Tremain and offers encouragement for us, and others writers.

So its back to the drawing board in a way, but thanks to Bloody
Words and the information gleaned there, in addition to making some new
connections, we are energized and anxious to get on with it. My personal challenge is balancing writing
(which I love) against work (which is a necessity, but I also enjoy). Anyone know where I can get a clone?

A muggy damp weekend is in the forecast – perfect for
writing don’t you think?

Monday, June 4, 2012

I second all that Liz has to say on her last post. Bloody Words /2012 was awesome. Putting
a face to a name from either FB or a book you had read was neat. The panel
discussions were great and one of my favourite sessions was the three hour’s we
spent with Cheryl Freedman on self –editing. www.crimewriterscanada.com/bios/members-lists.
The subject matter was just what we need to get our book ready to roll. It
helped that I could hear what was being said. I use a personal microphone and
receiver that doesn’t always cooperate. Sitting through three hours at the
banquet was difficult but I just laughed when everyone else did and smiled a
lot. I could hear Linwood Barclay’s jokes and stories but I missed most of the
punch lines from Rick Bletcha who was a super MC.

I was going to add some pictures here today but for some
reason I can’t get them attached from camera to computer. I only took a few at
the conference, so another time. I intended to add a picture I took this
morning of a white resin Buddha. He is about 5 inches high and laughing his
head off. He has plentiful breasts and a large stomach. How he manages to cross
his legs in the lotus position is beyond me. My husband Peter gave me this
.....token this morning to commemorate
our forty sixth wedding anniversary. Yes, forty six years of wedded bliss! Never
a cross word or argument. And if you believe that....

So what is the significance of this object d’art you might ask?
Was he thinking of me as he gazed upon this Buddha with his ample physique? Or
was it the laughing smiley face? I think I’ll assume that he liked it and
thought it would give me pleasure. Phew... Another crisis aborted.

We did meet another couple of women at the conference that collaborate as we do. Mary Anne Wollison and Michelle Cooke. They’ve just
finished their first book together and we wish them well with it. It was
probably the most asked question for us at the conference. “How do you write together?” The writing is
still the lonely act it always is but we do get together face to face to iron
out any ideas or problems with the plot line. Once we have decided on a general
story the characters emerge. We are nearly always in agreement with the
characters. Some characters Liz owns and some are mine but we can both write
using them. It’s just that; a collaboration (The action of working with someone toproduce or createsomething) We also trust and
respect each other. That helps.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Home again after attending Jamie Tremain’s second Bloody
Words conference; the first being in Ottawa in 2009. And true to form it was another great weekend
– a wealth of information and networking packed into three days. Terrific panellists and guest speakers;
Linwood Barclay and Gayle Lynds were in fine form. Enjoyed listening to Dr. Peter Collins, whose
degree in forensic psychiatry has involved him in many areas of law enforcement
and criminal behaviour – it was fascinating and the time went by far too
quickly. My LinkedIn and Facebook
contact list has now grown after the weekend.

Pam and I arrived in the middle of a torrential rain Friday
afternoon – so much rain that Union Station had been evacuated due to flooding.
And then a tragic shooting at the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto (just blocks
away from our hotel) on Saturday brought home the fact that any of us can be affected
by random violence – although this appears to have been a gang related shooting
with one death, innocent lives are changed forever when caught in the
crossfire.

Our manuscript evaluation was done by Deryn Collier which was
extremely helpful and will keep us on track. She had some great pointers and was very
positive and supportive and we are more than grateful for her advice. Needless to say you know what that means.....Draft
6 will be started before long.

Thanks also to Jim Shephard for some insight and tips
discussed this morning – I’ll be adding his P.E. Eyes to my reading list. Along with Deryn Collier, Gayle Lynds and the
new Linwood Barclay book due out later this year – just to name a few.

I can’t even imagine how much work and planning went into
producing another successful conference and my hat’s off to all who were
involved. Pam and I will start saving our nickels (pennies are soon to be
extinct) in order to attend the next Bloody Words, which is skipping a year and
will be again in Toronto in 2014.

So after a very tiring but satisfying weekend, I now have to
switch gears for returning to work tomorrow.

Have a great week and stay tuned for some new ideas coming
to this blog in the near future!